The Pixies have still got it of course. Black Francis and company are on the comeback trail with a brand new song, “On Graveyard Hill.” It’s the lead track from the band’s forthcoming full-length, “Beneath the Eyrie”. The album will be the group’s seventh studio effort when it’s released on September 13th.
“On Graveyard Hill” seethes with the manic energy of classic Pixies, with Black Francis’ vocals as the most distinctive feature. Recorded without any effects or distortion, he sounds like a new man. Beneath the Eyrie arrives with twelve songs about “witches, Daniel Boone, misfits,” and other spooky stuff. Halloween 2019 soundtrack? Signs point to yes. The album was produced by Tom Dalgety, who most recently racked up some Grammy nominations with the band Ghost.
The official audio for ‘On Graveyard Hill’ by Pixies taken from new album ‘Beneath the Eyrie’.
Daughter of Swords, the new project of Alexandra Sauser-Monnig of Mountain Man, has shared the track “Gem”, the first peek into her solo output. Of the song, Sauser-Monnig says “‘Gem’ is about that omnipotent feeling you get when you’re falling in love and the rules haven’t been made yet. When everything feels possible and the world looks beautiful and shining, and at the same time, you and the world are kind of dented from human contact. This was the first song Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) and I produced together. It was so much fun. To me, with its messed up little drum beat and unrelenting optimism, it feels like a romance novel in song form being played out of a tiny, broken cassette player.”
“Gem” is available everywhere now and Daughter of Swords debut album is due summer 2019 on Bella Union/Nonesuch. Additionally, Daughter of Swords has announced two New York shows in November with SylvanEsso at the Beacon Theatre, with more tour dates to come.
About “Gem” and Daughter of Swords: There’s a patience in the little things. The arc of sticky summers brimming and eventually cooling, grasses overgrowing before being cut to stubs, creeks rushing to an eventual trickle, night skies growing darker before dawn breaks. In stillness and in presence, we can allow these archetypes to pervade our experience and teach us lessons as old as time and reflexive in every organism’s makeup. This clarity is present in every note of “Gem”, the debut release from Daughter of Swords – Alexandra Sauser-Monnig of Mountain Man. Starting small on a creaky old guitar, a single voice in the air, these meditations were brought to life over the winter in a tiny house at the centre of a creative commune. It’s a compass set, an intention stated, a window flung open to let the summer air in – buoyant, resilient, golden.
Daughter of Swords—Alexandra Sauser-Monnig of Mountain Man—performs “Gem.”
Shannon Lay doesn’t so much write songs as cast spells. Her third full-length “August” (named for the month in 2017 she chucked her day job to devote herself entirely to music) is a mesmerizing folk-pop record full of solemnly but confidently sung meditations around the general theme of moving forward. In another artist’s hands, that might sound Pollyanna, but Lay — whose acoustic albums in 2016 and ’17 recalled the great singer-poets of the 1960s — possesses a certain comportment to go along with her singular command of both musical and lyrical language. On “August” produced with a light touch by her long time pal Ty Segall, we feel as if we’re overhearing the songwriter’s inner conversations. And it’s not small talk.
We’re pretty sure this album (along with Bedouine’s “Bird Songs of a Killjoy” and Odessa’s “All Things”) is the path to a higher plane.
Transcendent folk-pop artist Shannon Lay will release her Sub Pop Records debut “August”, on August 23rd. You can now watch the official video for “Nowhere,” the album’s lead single, directed by Lay and Chris Slater. She says of the song and visual, “I want this song to emphasize the importance of enjoying the journey. The video is moments of in between travel footage, different settings around my home, singing in the bounty of spring. There is so much power in presence, enjoy every moment, savor every second. Cherish the memories made along the way and appreciate how they change and shape you.”
The title August refers to the month in 2017 when Lay quit her day job and fully gave herself over to music. This was her liberation as an artist, and the album is devoted to paying that forward to her listeners. “It’s a thank you to the universe,” says the Los Angeles artist. Exquisitely uplifting, August doubles as an aural baptism renewing her purpose for making music. “I always picture music as this river. Everyone’s throwing things into this river, it’s a place you can go to and feed off of that energy,” she says, “and feel nourished by the fact that so many people are feeling what you’re feeling. It’s this beautiful exchange.”
August is now available for preorder from Sub Pop Records. Europe will receive the limited Loser edition on orange vinyl (North America) and Sun Yellow vinyl (UK/EU) while supplies last.
As previously reported, Shannon Lay will be a member of Ty Segall’s Freedom Band for his upcoming full album, Following these shows, Shannon Lay will embark on an 18-date North American tour opening for Mikal Cronin,
Australia’s favourite barnstorming five-piece Bad//Dreems are back with their latest single ‘Double Dreaming’, the first taste of what to expect from their forthcoming album due out October this year via Farmer and the Owl, and today they announce a string of headline shows this July in support of the new single.
Since its release ‘Double Dreaming’ has been racking up playlist features across all streaming services, picking up airplay across community radio stations, and receiving an add on triple j.
Debuting their latest release to audiences across Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide & Brisbane, along with fan favourites, get in quick to witness ‘Double Dreaming’ live for the first time!
Bad//Dreems head to the UK in June for a number of headlines shows and two opening sets for Midnight Oil.
The Adelaide five-piece have always had a way with a terse pub rock riff, and this new single is no exception, but it’s the way Ben Marwe paints, well… snarls an absurdist portrait of wokeness, identity politics, white privilege, and explosive visuals.” .
Taken from JuliaShapiro’s forthcoming solo debut “Perfect Version” (due out June 14th via Hardly Art Records),“Shape” is an illusory song, keeping its muddied bass and guitars just out of grasp. Shapiro’s vocals are similarly like a mirage, a siren beckoning you on your endless journey, as she sings detached lyrics yearning for connection: “And in my dream / things were just as they seemed / we were on the phone / and your thoughts were my own.”
Swooning dreampop soundtracks a surreal travelogue through the Australian outback in this music video for “Shape,” the third single taken from Perfect Version, the solo debut of Julia Shapiro, singer/guitarist of Chastity Belt and Childbirth. Perfect Version is out Friday, June 14th.
Chastity Belt have been poised to make that entrance for nearly a decade now, but before they return with album number 4, frontwoman Julia Shapiro is taking a solo trip with her debut studio album. A year ago the musician returned home from a cancelled Chastity Belt tour, feeling like she “couldn’t even imagine playing a show again.” What emerged from that period of darkness is something clear, the sad but savvy summer sing-song of Perfect Vision. If Ms. Shapiro is the next Seattle singer to break it big, then the musical reputation of the Pacific Northwest is in very good hands, indeed.
“If only you could hear me scream,” Stef Chura sings at one point during her sophomore release, “Sweet Sweet Midnight”, her first full length album release for Saddle Creek Records. She makes good on her promise and does quite a bit of screaming throughout, even channeling a modern DIY Karen O at times. Produced by Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo, “Midnight” takes everything you love from his band and applies it to Chura’s transfixing voice, a perfect match for this rising act from Detroit. She’s long been building up buzz in the indie rock community; Sweet Sweet Midnight may launch her to stardom, a jump that’s been long overdue.
“For most people who create art I would assume there is some kind of deep unanswerable hole in your soul as to why you’re making it…” So says Stef Chura ahead of the release of her gritty, vehement new album – recorded and produced by Will Toledo ofCar Seat Headrest –and her first new collection of songs . Illuminating that search for answers with a fevered sense of exploration, Midnight is a bold leap forward from Messes, Stef’s contagious debut album, with every aspect of her new work finding bold ways to express itself as it rips through twelve restless and relentless new tracks.
A couple of years on from the release of Messes, Stef is still based in Detroit, that most singular city which has seen it all, from the no-mans-land of its initial collapse through to the resurgent place it is now. Stef found inspiration from the people she surrounded with herself with, more so than the place itself. It’s no surprise that Midnight is testament to those kind of characteristics; a rugged and robust burst of defiance. “I’m usually dealing with the context of what I can’t say or haven’t said,” . “This album has a depth to it and a particular sound because of Will,” Stef states regarding Toledo’s input, whose spiky nuances can be found across the length and breadth of Midnight, the record presenting an exhilarating rush of sound and colour as Stef’s spirited vocal finds and signature guitar sounds unravel alongside in a thrilling meeting of ideas and influences; dispelling demons, song by song.
“With this album I wanted it to be clearer and more listenable, in a number of ways,” Stef says. Proof of this outlook can be found on the edgy lead track ‘Method Man’, a boisterous three-minutes that melds jagged, skewed guitars with a distinctive voice that has a new-found sense of confidence, whether spitting spoken-word mantras during the exhilarating percussive coda or simply letting loose amid the squalling bluster of guitars.
You can find it elsewhere too, in fact it runs right through the heart of Midnight’s twelve tracks. Take the sweeping brilliance of ‘Jumpin’ Jack’, a somewhat more refined three-minutes that bursts into a thrilling finale, or ‘Sincerely Yours’, a brooding four-minutes initially gives deserved space to Stef’s voice and words more than ever before, before bursting into life with with a pent-up energy that positively roars from within.
Equal parts thrilling and angsty, Midnight is a testament to the collaborative process, a record that makes the very most of those who came together to make it, but more than that, it’s a firm statement of tenacity and perseverance, of not resting on your laurels but leaping forwards no matter the situation you find yourself in. From out of one day and into the next.
The Detroit-native indie rocker Stef Chura also released a Record Store Day release on April 21st. The song, titled “Sour Honey,” follows the double-sided vinyl’s previous release, a-side “Degrees.” Check out that first track’s lyric video below
Lukas Nelson and his band Promise Of The Real have unveiled the video for ‘Bad Case,’ the first of two upfront tracks to be released from their upcoming album Turn Off the News (Build a Garden), out on 14th June.
As Willie Nelson’s son, Lukas is not the only famous offspring on the project: the clip is co-directed by Adria Petty, daughter of Tom, whose resumé also includes videos for the likes of Beyoncé and Regina Spektor. The co-director on ‘Bad Case’ is Alan Bibby, with whom she oversaw Coldplay and Rihanna’s ‘Princess of China’ promo; Bibby’s other credits include the Ariana Grande/Stevie Wonder collaboration ‘Faith.’
“Lukas and Promise of the Real are amazing musicians and human beings,” Petty said. “So it was a huge honour to work on this collaboration shoulder to shoulder.”
In the lead-up to the release of Turn Off the News (Build a Garden), Nelson and his compadres have been typically hard at work on the road. They opened for The Who last month, played with longtime mentor Neil Young at several West Coast shows and performed their own sold out show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
The album, the band’s second for Fantasy Records, is another fascinating blend of rock ‘n’ roll, country, soul, folk and R&B. “We wanted these songs to be fun and upbeat,” says Nelson, “but we also wanted to have something to say. Rock ‘n’ roll began as a countercultural movement, so in the true spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, we’re trying to encourage a lifestyle where people can be active in their local communities, rather than glued to a device.
“We listen to so many artists — the Byrds, Tom Petty, Al Green, Neil Young, Little Feat, J.J. Cale — and this album carries forth something they all represented, the idea of turning off the news and doing something constructive. It’s a statement about how you can live your life with your heart leading the way.”
“Bad Case” is off the new album from Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real, “Turn Off The News (Build A Garden) available everywhere June 14th.
Heavy psychedelic / fuzz band who formed in 2016 in Wellington, New Zealand. A male/female two-piece who play loud, energetic, disorientating songs, often with space and/or occult themes. What do you get if you cross Black Sabbath with Stereolab? Fuck knows, but listen to this Primitive Prog -it’s crazy cosmic jack!
This could well end up being a lot of peoples favourite album of the year – people whose twin loves are heavy fuzz and fantasy sci-fi…Sometimes music is supposed to feel weird and indescribable. It’s the moments of clarity within the dense, sonic mess that often feels the most satisfying. That’s the space that Earth Tongue occupy. At times, their songs are shrill and disorientating, other times their reverb-washed textures and instantly-familiar hooks can wrap you in a warm, loving embrace.
Now that is a good description, from the bands press release. Another two piece band -drums and guitar, re-writing the rules and making Prog-influenced music sound simultaneously pop and primitive.
Named after a glutinous fungus (Glutinoglossum glutinosum) Earth Tongue consists of two earthlings:- Gussie Larkin (guitar – a master of the fuzz-smothered riff) and Ezra Simons (stunning, off-kilter drums). Both sing. Their debut Portable Shrine EP was self-released in New Zealand but Floating Being is released this via Bristol (UK) based independent label Stolen Body Records – home of a load of cool international bands.
Taken from the album Floating Being out on Stolen Body Records.
Earth Tongue embrace the imperfections in their playing and recording – drawing influence from early 70s psych and prog rock. The last thing they wanted was to create a shiny, over-produced record – with that in mind, they recorded the drums to an old 8-track Tascam reel-to-reel in a friend’s garage in Melbourne. The result is a punchy, raw and fuzzy journey into psych-rock with songs that weave between melodic and jarring. Unexpected twists and turns leave the listener in a disorientated yet satisfying haze.
From the new album “Stonechild”Red White and Black is a one of a kind within the songs off Stonechild. It’s a bitter pill… an anecdotal antidote. We get to hear Lucius sing with me the chorus ! The video which was directed by my old friend and collaborator Elia Petridis and his company Filmatics was a true adventure to make…from conception to execution. I’m game.
Jesca says of the song “Red White and Black” is a poem, like a snapshot, set in post civil war USA when slavery was “abolished” and swiftly rebranded by the prison system. It’s a personal acknowledgement and willingness to join the conversation for change”.
A culmination of life and musical experience, uncompromising in its vision, Stonechild, the new studio album from Jesca Hoop is a self described “compassion project.”
Released on July 5th by Memphis Industries, Stonechild is Hoop refined and defined. Beautiful, subtle and stark, her fifth album, the follow up to 2017’s highly acclaimed ‘Memories Are Now’, is her best yet.
Despite being a long term resident of Manchester, Hoop, has until now, returned to her native California to record. This time round however, “it was” according to Hoop“time to step out of my comfort zone, my safe place”, venturing south to Bristol to team up with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding, This is the Kit). Parish’s minimal and purist approach helped clarify Hoop in her ideas and subtly yet effectively realigning her sound. The simplified arrangements draw focus to the fundamental sophistication of the songs.
While Hoop’s trademark finger-plucked guitar and ethereal textures remain, the songs and their presentation are ever more direct.Parish“was a gentle collaborator until he killed one of my darlings” Hoop jests. “I’ve never been so brutally edited, and I wasn’t shy about expressing my discomfort at the sight of my work on the cutting room floor. He said, you will forgive me, and in some way I think I actually enjoyed that treatment…being stripped back to the bare basics…albeit painfully”. Stonechild ventures further into fresh territory with other voices joining the narrative, with Kate Stables (aka This is the Kit) Rozi Plain and Lucius singing the choruses and expanding the sensual depth of the sonic bloom.
Embedded in Hoop’s song writing is an inherent unpredictability something she ascribes to being “guided more from instinct than study”. Perhaps more than ever before, Stonechild sees Hoop lead us through uncharted landscapes across the course of the album. “When I look at the history of my life, I realise I have the breakdown of not only my parents’ marriage but also the breakdown of their parenting to thank for the wild and unexpected course that my life would take. I went looking for a raw and rugged world. the opposite of what I was raised in.”
The album title was settled after a trip to a Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum, where the Stonechild is a sad, compelling display of an unborn foetus carried by a woman for over 30 years. “They become a hard ball of bones, a rock. Phonetically, it’s a beautiful sounding word – hard and soft – but also, I am taken by the idea of carrying something for a long time, perhaps in secret and then giving it up. I hope I have made an album of substance. There is meat on the bone”.
There certainly is; the breath-taking Shoulder Charge, with Lucius contributing backing vocals, speaks of stigmatized culture and the kind of isolation that is formed by shame in a world where were “we are actually and truly the same …even in our differences. To understand all is to forgive all”.
Old Fear of Father tackles an exhausted patriarchy and misogyny but if it was perpetuated by females. “I love my boys, more than I love my girl, try not to show it, she’s knows, like I knew”. It’s bare yet dense arrangement reveals a story that is both heart-breaking and shamefully true.
On Red White and Black, Hoop chants down white supremacy. “Now the iron cloth that’s cut from the loom bares the black and white stripe of a cotton field rolling- And the dark mines and flame of redeemers put them right back in the iron cloth and the flag is waving”. As Hoop says “current politics is fucking disturbing. I write from personal perspective, about relationships mostly and I don’t find much music in politics, but as hate crimes increase, women’s rights are being rolled back, and the two nations I call home are building walls… well, the political has become deeply personal.”
The folkiest moment on the album, the Kate Stables featuring Outside of Eden,concerns those young ones whose development is now guided by technology and the increasingly intimate relationship between child and device. “Come shut in boys for the girlfriend experience, enter the code and I’ll taste real”.
Stonechild, Hoop says, is intended to “wrap its arms around our human planet spinning in its increasingly precarious wobble”. These rich and curious songs derived from themes of our troubled times speak Hoop’s heart and mind from her empathetic yet tough loving centre point. With writing so fluid, so natural the result is an album where everything is truly meant.
